This is an application for a continuing SCORE Program at New Mexico State University (NMSU), Las[unreadable] Cruces. A goal of NMSU is to expand research at the institution for participation by ethnic minority students[unreadable] who desire to pursue careers in the biomedical science disciplines. The proposed SCORE Program has as its[unreadable] goals: (i) To transition, within the next four years, 74% of the investigators of regular SCORE subprojects in[unreadable] this application to competition for R01 funding from NIH. (ii) To enhance within the next four years, the[unreadable] publication records of all investigators of SCORE subprojects, who are in their second cycle of funding, to a[unreadable] minimum of 33% more research manuscripts per year in peer-reviewed, refereed journals. (iii) To significantly[unreadable] improve the capabilities of NMSU to conduct biomedically-relevant research through development of core[unreadable] research facilities. (iv) To improve the capacity of NMSU to self-evaluate, assess, and monitor the SCORE[unreadable] Program for the purpose of institutional self-study, program review, support of MORE Program missions, and[unreadable] internal improvement of research management.[unreadable] This application contains research proposals for nineteen research subprojects and three pilot[unreadable] subprojects. Disciplines represented among these proposals include Agronomy, Animal Science,[unreadable] Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Microbiology and Psychology. The research topics of[unreadable] proposed projects include: mitosis and cytokinesis in animal cells, sensory organogenesis during inner ear[unreadable] development, genomic interactions of the growth hormone axis and leptin, pathogenicity in symbiotic vibrios,[unreadable] transcription factors in myogenic cells of electric fish, translational control of hepatitis C virus, adaptations of[unreadable] pigeons and rats to hypoxia, transmission of the pathogen,Cryptosporidium parvum, bacteriocide tolerance of[unreadable] Staphylococcus aureus, regulation of glutamine synthetase, programmed cell death studied by RNAi, electric[unreadable] and mechanical properties of bio-macromolecules, metal ion chelators for biomedical applications, highvalence[unreadable] iron complexes as models for non-heme iron proteins, chemical synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals,[unreadable] transcription regulation of secondary metabolism, organic synthesis of novel heterocyclic and aromatic[unreadable] compounds, transcriptional profiling of drought and salt tolerance in plants, selective binding of enantiomers[unreadable] by clays, and infant learning gauged by cortisol and behavioral synchrony. This SCORE Program will[unreadable] continue a 29-year MBRS Program which has advanced 351 minority students (-81% of B.S.-graduated[unreadable] participants) to post-baccalaureate training, 72 eaming Ph.D. degrees, since 1974.